An Investigation of the Color-Affect Hypothesis in Exner's Comprehensive System

The color-affect hypothesis states that color responses on the Rorschach provide information regarding an individual's emotional life. The present study explored the several color-affect interpretive hypotheses in Exner's popular Comprehensive System by using a theory-relevant measure of affective modulation inferred from 32 undergraduates' behavior in an emotionally salient dyadic interaction. Subjects designated as high affective modulators ( n = 6) and low affective modulators ( n = 10) according to Exner's theory were not significantly different on a discrepancy score measure of affective modulation. It is suggested that Rorschach color scores may be insensitive to the more subtle forms of affective modulation present in less emotionally disordered individuals. Further research is suggested and caution is advised for clinicians assessing affective modulation styles in less severely disturbed patients based on traditional color-affect interpretive theory.

The South London Somatisation Study

In a two-year longitudinal study, a two-stage screening procedure was used to identify subjects in primary care with emotional disorder presenting with a recent onset of physical symptoms and a comparison sample of patients presenting with physical symptoms only. Somatisers (n = 44) were defined as subjects who had an emotional disorder but who presented with physical symptoms that could not be attributed to organic disease. The course and outcome of these conditions were compared with those of pure emotional disorder (n = 11), pure physical disorder (n = 90) and ‘mixed’ conditions (n = 39). The physical symptoms of somatisers were less likely to improve and lagged behind those of the other groups, and 16 of these acute somatisers went on to develop chronic somatoform disorders. Among somatisers, changes in physical symptom levels throughout the follow-up closely mirrored changes in emotional arousal. Emotionally disordered subjects reported more instances of parental lack of care, but somatisers were also more likely than other groups to report parental physical illness and to have had more physical illness themselves in childhood. A logistic regression suggests that adult somatisation is best modelled by parental lack of care followed by childhood illness.